Spilling the tea on Kent’s newest bubble tea shop

Since 2016, the town of Kent has seen an explosion in popularity surrounding one of the trendiest Japanese snacks to hit the U.S. in recent years: bubble tea. Known for the tiny tapioca pearls or boba balls that float in the bottom of the cup, the drink combines a fruity or otherwise sweet flavors with an added level of texture that people seem to love.

The month of May 2016 brought two new businesses to Kent. There was Ha! Tea Bubble Tea House on North Mantua Street and Ming’s Bubble Tea on East Main Street. Seeing their success, Morgan Jiang decided to open his second Kenko location in the college town. In addition to offering sushi rolls and teriyaki, Kenko also serves as a vendor for Kung Fu Tea, a national chain of bubble tea shops.

“Kung Fu Tea, right now, is the fastest-expanding bubble tea chain in the U.S., if not the entire world,” said Morgan Jiang, general manager of Kenko Kent. “When we signed up our first Kung Fu Tea franchisee agreement with them for our Cleveland location, they had about 60 stores nationwide.” Now, that number exceeds 180.

Kenko was first set to open on North Depeyster Street in September 2016, along with the neighboring Pizza Fire, but the building was fraught with issues.

There were contractor problems, issues with parts for the air vent that hung above the grill, city inspector issues and a change in landlord. All of this combined meant that the restaurant opened in September 2018, losing two years of valuable business, but Jiang doesn’t see this as a bad thing.

Have you ever tried bubble tea? Do you even know what bubble tea is? *Sips Tea* Well, if you don't, you're in luck! Check out my story to learn all about the bubble tea locations in Kent, OH and how the small businesses are surviving with chains popping up around the city.

— ANDREA GUMP (@GumpAndrea) September 26, 2018

“If anything, more people know about us, either just walking by or driving by and seeing the signs,” Jiang explained. “Some customers have been our customers in Cleveland, so they also spread the word.”

Executive Director of the Kent Area Chamber of Commerce Lori Wemhoff also testified to the delay’s success in getting people interested in the business.

“There has been a huge increase in the number of Asian restaurants just in the downtown area, and the surrounding area,” said Wemhoff. “We did a ribbon cutting for (Kenko) last month. I cannot tell you how many calls we got because there were delays in the opening of it for one reason or another. It is right on the corner so everyone kept seeing workers going in and out of the buildings wondering when it was going to open.”

This all begs the question, what effects have Kenko’s opening had on Ming’s and Ha!, which are both locally owned businesses? Better yet, with two bubble tea places in Kent, is there a need for a third?

“Chains are not necessarily direct competition to the mom and pop stores,” said City of Kent Economic Development Director Tom Wilke.

“When I’ve seen failures, it typically isn’t because they had the wrong concept, but it’s more because they didn’t operate it as well as the other businesses in town,” said Wilke, who went on to explain that restaurants have particularly high standards. Local business owners weren’t as worried as some might expect.

“I didn’t really worry about them at all,” said Mingliang Xie, the owner of Ming’s. “No matter whether it’s Ha! Tea or Kung Fu Tea, our products and our customer and everything, it’s far superior (to) any competitors that we have.”

Xie said that he views competition as a form of motivation. “You shouldn’t be afraid of competition. You should appreciate the competition.”

“If you go back a few years, we almost had an Asian Invasion, if you’ll call it, because we had so many Aisan restaurants go up around the same time,” said Wilke. “I was a little worried that they were oversupply and, in fact, that turned out to be the case.”

But Kenko brings something new to the table, combining food and tea in a way that its competitors can’t, meaning it can appeal people whether they’re hungry or thirsty. The location doesn’t hurt, either.

“This being right next to Pizza Fire, right next to the new Kent Police building, right across from the Kent Hotel, we expect it to do pretty good,” said Jiang. “So far, we have seen very positive traffic coming into the restaurant, and more and more people are aware that we’re open.”

If Kenko’s success encourages other businesses to succeed and grow, then there could well be more room for businesses of its kind in Kent.

 

“I hope there are going to be more bubble tea shops, so we can keep improving ourselves,” Xie said. “That’s also motivation for any business owner. That means you have made the right decision opening this type of business here, because not only you, but other business owners see the opportunity and the market, and we just be the best out of it, and that’s basically what we’re going for.”

Xie explained that he believes the ultimate goal for any business owner is to become a national chain, even if they don’t realize that’s what they want. “I don’t think the owner of Chipotle foreseen the national franchise when he or she opened the first business. Eventually, if there’s enough market nationwide, you will become a national brand. And if there’s not a market for it, you won’t be. That’s basically the economy right there, so I try not to think of my shop as a local shop.”

With the recent opening of Kung Fu Tea in Kent, the college town now has three different bubble tea shops. Is this too many? Find out when my story drops later today on #JMCRPP

— michael lemonade (@cunningcollin) September 26, 2018

Andrea Gump: Took photos, interviewed two sources, created podcast, created graph

Collin Cunningham: wrote the text component of the story, interviewed two sources, created Google MyMap of all the bubble tea shops in Kent